SEGA Game Gear

While the Japanese Manga/Anime of Crayon Shin-Chan debuted way back in 1990 over in Japan, it didn’t get popular in the West until around 2006 when Funimation picked up the license. Even though it took us decades in America, the show still became a cult hit and its not surprising seeing previous Japanese only releases like Crayon Shin-Chan Showdown! Quantum Panic!! on the SEGA Game Gear getting fan translations.

Its incredible how talented and hardworking some of the Sonic the Hedgehog fans out there are. Not only does the franchise seem to get some sort of fan remake, re-imagining and other game type projects announced a few times a year; they are usually pretty well thought out! This time the fan team over at A+Start is aiming at re-imagining the 1993 SEGA Game Gear exclusive Sonic Chaos.

Even better? The team over at A+Start has released a full playable demo for you guys to try. You can download that right here.

Seeing the trailer, its quite obvious that the team is very influence by Sonic Mania and that is not a bad thing! As you know we love Sonic Mania. Are you guys going to give this fan re-imagining of Sonic Chaos a spin?

Romhacking.net user Wave has released a Spanish translation for all the SEGA versions of The Jungle Book. Ever want to play The Jungle Book but you don’t know English? Wait, how are you reading this blog? Never mind, just know that The Jungle Book is now playable in Spanish on your retro SEGA platform of choice.

Now when that one cousin from Mexico that doesn’t know English comes over, you can pop in The Jungle Book on your favorite SEGA retro console and show him a time when Disney made animated films and had decent video game tie-ins. Weren’t those the days?

Are you a fan of the Strider games on the SEGA Genesis, SEGA Master System and the SEGA Game Gear? Did you ever want to play those games in Spanish? Well, Romhacking.net user Wave has got a few releases that will be right up your alley!

He has released the following Spanish translation patches for the following Strider games:

You can see some screenshots of the modified Spanish translations at the bottom. While this isn’t a huge news story, I always love how the fan community will go back and edit roms just so more people can enjoy these old games. What are your thoughts on Strider being bilingual now?

Do you still have your SEGA Game Gear and looking for a new Shoot’em up game to keep you busy? Look no further than the just released Swabby, a new homebrew game from the developer of Hang-On is now available for you to download via SMS Power. That means that the SEGA Game Gear lives!

The character Swabby actually has quite the history with the SEGA Master System since the snail creature starred in the hidden Snail Maze game. The game takes assets from classic SEGA games like Altered Beast, Shinobi and even Sonic the Hedgehog. So have plenty of extra batteries, turn on your SEGA Game Gear and start the nostalgia.

You might assume that Panzer Dragoon only had 4 games in the series: the original Panzer Dragoon, Zwei, Saga, and Orta. That’s understandable, as these were the only major releases in the franchise. However, Panzer Dragoon does have a few skeletons in the closet. However, what I’m going to show you today, well, you may wish I had never revealed these secret games to you.

If last month’s 3DS themes weren’t enough to make you envy Japanese gamers, this week’s ought to do it. 3DS has received two more SEGA console themes, this time centering on the Game Gear and the Master System.

The themes are loaded with fan service, of course. The Game Gear theme is sporting the Green Hills Zone theme from its version of Sonic 2 and folders made out of 3D Game Gear cartridges, while the Master System theme features an 8-bit rendition of the Space Harrier song and 3D gold cartridge folders (which were a line of Master System cartridges in Japan).

Though I couldn’t find a price, the themes are likely going for 200 yen/$1.50 like last month’s themes. Having a Game Gear theme on my Nintendo handheld would be oh-so perfect, so hopefully we’ll eventually see their release stateside. Fingers crossed!

This is it! Our third Console Wars focused episode of the Swingin’ Report Show in which we speak with the man himself, SEGA of America’s former President Tom Kalinske! Tom has an amazing history with the toy and game industry. Before his years with SEGA, Tom served as President and CEO of Mattel, reviving the Barbie brand and creating the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe line. During his time at SEGA, Tom reinvigorated the SEGA Genesis brand, helped in the creation of Sonic the Hedgehog, and led the launch of many famous pieces of SEGA hardware including the Game Gear, Pico, 32X, Nomad, and Saturn.

Its almost that time of season where most kids are waiting to tell their parents what modern day war shooter they want under their Christmas tree. Its also the time where older folks, like ourselves on the site, think about our previous holidays and how we used to make our parents waste hoards of cash to buy our affection. Wasn’t that great? Well this week on Monday Memories we will look at the 1996 holiday Toy ‘R’ Us video game catalog. I remember these where awesome as a kid, it was like window shopping for games in my underwear.

The SEGA Blog has revealed the next Game Gear titles heading to the Nintendo 3DS eShop. When are they available? Today! Right now, ready to download, are Sonic the Hedgehog, Columns, Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, and Shining Force: Sword of Hajya! All four are fantastic titles. Sonic fans who never experienced the 8-bit version of Sonic’s first adventure should play the Game Gear Sonic the Hedgehog as soon as possible. Both Columns and Mean Bean Machine are solid puzzle games, and Shining Force: Sword of Hajya (aka Shining Force Gaiden II: The Evil God Awakens) is a great mobile version of the strategy rpg series.

Being a game collector is tough, finding all those gems you loved from your childhood. But when you get them all together, how do you display them like trophies in your man cave? Well, Reddit user NintendoTwizer has found a pretty neat way of displaying his games. Custom made shelves.

Cinemassacre, home of the Angry Video Game Nerd, is typically a Nintendo leaning site. However, contributor Mike Matei showed SEGA some love by way of a Game Gear video review. The video covers a number of games including Streets of Rage 2 and X-Men. One interesting aspect of the video is that Mike commissioned a video game hardware wizard to make him a Game Gear that is capable of video out. This allows for a way to capture video directly off the Game Gear. Given Mike’s close ties with James Rolfe, this opens the door for AVGN Game Gear episodes. Want to know how the Game Gear video out modification was done? Check out the video after the break.

The Game Gear, SEGA’s little handheld that had a color screen and a very bright back lit screen, is over 20 years old. Sure the device never out sold Nintendo’s juggernaut known as the Game Boy. But if you were a SEGA fan back in the day, the bad battery life didn’t keep you away from owning one. Some people may wonder what sort of promotional events SEGA did before launching a device like the Game Gear. Well, this week on Monday Memories we take a look at “Operation Game Gear” and “Superstar Kids Challenge”.